Travis d’Arnaud lit up Citi Field last night with a huge offensive outburst, all part of a tremendous 13-7 win for the Mets . In his first at-bat after the Dodgers had taken a 3-0 lead in the top of the second, TDA came to plate with Yoenis Cespedes on base and ripped the first pitch he saw for a double to score the Mets first run of the game. D’Arnaud later went onto score on the Curtis Granderson three-run double to give the Metropolitans the 4-3 lead.
“That was huge for us,” d’Arnaud said. “Right when we got back in the dugout, everyone was saying, ‘We got this, we got this,’ and we never give up and it shows what kind of character and fight this team has.”
In the very next inning, d’Arnaud got a change-up from Dodgers starter Brett Anderson on the first pitch and he crushed it over the left field wall for a home run. Entering the game in a bit of an offensive funk, Travis changed things up and went into attack mode, taking advantage of first pitch strikes.
“Today I was just trying to keep things simple,” d’Arnaud said. “I feel like, the last few weeks, I’ve been overthinking and trying to do too much instead of just seeing the ball and hitting the ball.”
D’Arnaud looked very relaxed at the plate last night, almost measuring his shots before each pitch he slammed. He’s struggled early on in the series, swinging early with minimal results and entered the game 0-for-7. However, last night Travis was able to slow down the game for himself and he took full advantage.
“One of the things as you go back, you can even tell, when he was swinging good, he jumped the count,” Terry Collins said of his catcher. “He ambushes you early in the count. But right now he’s swinging and fouling it off or swinging and missing.”
Ending the game with a big 3-for-5 night at the plate along with with three runs scored and three runs batted in, d’Arnaud got aggressive and focused and it really paid off. We can only hope it is the start of what could be a huge postseason for the young backstop.
